Gene Mims book, "The Seven Churches Not in the Book of Revelation" gives 7 types of churches that he sees as being unhealthy. 1. The University Church—where the emphasis is on teaching, learning, and doctrine. 2. The Arena Church—worship-centered, where performance and entertainment are key. 3. The Corporate Church—large, complex, intricate, and a model of …
Continue reading Seven Churches Today (Not Mentioned in the Book of Revelation)
I don’t care for most devotional or Christian growth books. But I do really enjoy the book/study guide “The Mind of Christ” by T. W. Hunt and Claude V. King. Part of my appreciation of it is that it is structured analytically… and I enjoy analytical stuff (probably more than what is healthy). A very …
From "The Devil's Bible". Image via Wikipedia I had an acquaintance who was invited to visit an “underground church” in China. They went into a tall condominium building. My friend was surprised when they began heading upstairs rather than downstairs. It took him a few seconds to remember that the term “underground church” was an …
Continue reading Difficulties in Christian Figurative Language and Imagery
Cover of Christ and Culture (Torchbooks) It has often been charged that Christian missions destroys culture. In my view, the response to this is clear...SOMETIMES. To consider this further, we need to recognize some truths. 1. Cultures are not static. They are constantly in flux... changing. Only dead cultures do not change. Living cultures change. …
Continue reading Is Christian Missions a Destroyer of Cultures?
Some questions as a follow-on to Part 1 of this post topic. Does interracial or intercultural marriage lessen the foreignness of the Christian faith? In Asia and Africa the “Sword and Taxation” method of Islamic conversion had begun to falter well before that religion reached Southeast Asia. And yet some of the greatest successes of …
Note: I am part of a mixed race marriage, and our children are (not surprisingly) mixed race and mixed culture. As such, I have a particular interest in mission’s attitude to racially mixed marriage and the role of race in missions in general. For those who don’t know the term, miscegenation refers to “marriage or …
“I am not reaping the harvest; I scarcely claim to be sowing the seed; I am hardly ploughing the soil; but I am gathering out the stones. That, too, is missionary work; let it be supported by loving sympathy and fervent prayer.” -Robert Bruce, missionary to Iranian Muslims in the late 19th century. <Quoted by …
What is a “4F” Missionary? As far as I know, this is something I coined, but the idea is well established around. This is tThe traditional missionary of the 19th and 20th centuries. I am going to start with 3F because it works better for a Venn Diagram... but we can add the fourth later. …
We just got a box of goods from our home church. It had a couple of books, some vitamins, Old Bay Seasoning, clarinet reeds, a table cloth, some letters from children and friends at our home church, and a couple of bottles of Screaming Hornets Hot Sauce. The box reminded me of a few things …
Continue reading Missionary Life: Screaming Hornets and Letters from Home
One of the two most popular posts on this blog is: From Power Encounter to Love Encounter In that post, I argued that the common missiological model of encounters, Truth Encounter, Allegiance Encounter, and Power Encounter, is flawed. Power Encounter, the challenging of the powers of evil with the power of God for missiological purposes …
Continue reading Power Encounter, Love Encounter, and Pandemic Love